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There are plenty of wild edibles out there that can be harvested sustainably once you know what they are, where to find them, how to get them, and what to do with them.
I highly recommend getting a reference guide for your location and taking a few foraging expeditions. If there are any scheduled forages with a knowledgeable guide, this is an excellent resource. BEFORE you eat anything you're unsure of, take it into your Co-op Extension and see if they will give you a positive identification since many plants have dangerous look-alikes or must be harvested/prepared in certain ways.
True, MissingAll4Seasons. I knew what every single edible plant was, as well as the poisonous ones, in SC. Then I moved here, and frankly I have NO idea. Are those harmless mushrooms, or are they poisonous? Yikes!!! Is that a ginko tree - here? Nope, can't be. But the leaves are sooo similar! - gotta look more closely at everything.
True Granny - even known species of edible plants can look entirely different from one location to the next due to climate and soil differences. And many plants can look so similar to something else in a different location, but are not those plants at all (nor could they be given your location). What looks edible based on one location, can indeed be poisonous in the location you're actually in, and vice-versa.
Can't tell you how many people end up in the hospital here thinking that the red baneberries are cranberries because 1) red baneberries (opposed to white) are uncommon anywhere else, 2) the plants look very similar, 3) we have 2 types of cranberries up here, and 4) neither of them look exactly like the cranberries you find in the rest of the US. Confusion between the three plants and their berries is oh so very easy just looking at a pic or drawing in a book from one season from somewhere else.
And mushrooms? I'm freakin' paranoid about the ones I know are safe, no way that I would ever eat a wild one that someone totally knowledgeable and trusted didn't show me and I had identified correctly in their presence several dozen times.
That's kind of how I feel about mushrooms Tennessee -- if it isn't cultivated, I'll just pass the plate, thx
Take one semester of botanical toxicology, and you'll never eat something you just picked without checking and double-checking first that's for sure. Most stuff will just make you sick; but the stuff that will kill you, kills you slowly and extremely painfully.
I wonder if you could easily differentiate just by taste. Just chew on a sample of one berry, and if it tastes the wrong way, spit it out.
Well, baneberries do taste extremely bitter, but then so do raw cranberries.
Tasting isn't a good way to determine if something is safe to eat... as many things only require a small amount of toxin to have an effect and can be absorbed through the mucous membranes in your mouth and don't have to be swallowed. A tiny nibble of baneberry will likely just make your mouth numb, you salivate a bunch, and your heart race a little... but not something I'd want to risk anyway.
If you don't have a reference guide, or can't make a positive ID based on the information in yours, there are several steps to take in determining the safety well before you taste it.
Yes, BE CAREFUL with wild edible plants. There are many "false friend" lookalikes. Take your time and make sure you have a positive ID. I'm just starting to get into this. It will take literally years to become comfortable. Do a LOT of study before you put it in your mouth. Make sure you know what it is and how to prepare it. Start off with the obvious ones that are easily recognizable, and work from there.
Also, the line between edible and toxic is actually a spectrum. Of course there are deadly plants that will kill you or make you sick right away. There are also plants that will build toxins within your body and you may not even know there is a problem until those toxins build to dangerous levels. Also, to cloud the issue further, some mildly toxic plants are not toxic once they are prepared and/or cooked properly. For instance, acorns. They were a staple food for some native Americans. Yet, you don't want to be going out in the forest, picking them, and pigging out on them. They must be properly prepared. And the variety of oak (red, white, etc) determines the amount of toxin (tannin) in the acorn. Bottom line is be careful--harvesting eatable wild plants is a lost art. Regaining that ability cannot simply rely on trial and error.
There are a few good resources, though. And, also, having offered the above warnings, I also think it's a very useful (even critical) skill that could certainly be used to help others and save lives in a bad situation. And if you give a damn about "business," it will certainly be a barter-able skill.
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